Gamification is the concept of applying game dynamics (e.g., player interaction, game play mechanics, etc.) in non-game contexts to enhance user engagement and performance. For example, gamification can be applied to business computer applications to engage and incentivize the application users (e.g., to be more productive) by including features reminiscent of computer games in the applications. Further, gamification can bridge the gap between what might be considered two distinct and mutually exclusive domains (e.g., business applications and games) by incorporating into the non-game environment the elements of what makes games and game play so compelling and engaging.
However, “gamifying” business applications has been limited. One legacy approach to gamification requires that each business application is independently upgraded with custom code to include game dynamics. Another legacy approach requires that a third-party gamification platform is integrated into the business application, again requiring custom code to enable the integration into each application. Such approaches are costly in terms of time, resources, and the risk of disrupting the function and operation of the underlying application. While the stakeholders of many businesses acknowledge the value of enhanced workforce motivation and productivity resulting from gamification, modifying their existing applications and/or integrating a third-party gamification platform is an expensive, inefficient, and a risky application-by-application approach. Techniques are therefore needed to address the problem of cost-effectively and non-intrusively integrating game dynamics into current and new enterprise applications, for example, by using predetermined performance instrumentation and predetermined auditing specifications.
None of the aforementioned legacy approaches achieve the capabilities of the herein-disclosed techniques for automatic gamification of enterprise applications using performance instrumentation and auditing specifications. Therefore, there is a need for improvements.